The Road of Hope (Hardcover)

One: Departure

If you are still bound by a gold chain, you are not ready for this road.

Our Lord guides you on to this road so that you will “go and bear fruit” (John 15:16) which will endure. The road is called The Road of Hope because it is overflowing with hope and is as beautiful as hope itself. And why should you not have hope when it is the Lord Jesus himself with whom you set off on the way to the Father?

The itinerary for this Road of Hope has three stages:

Departure: Renounce yourself.

Duty: Take up your cross daily.

Perseverance: Follow me.

If you have given up everything, but still have not denied yourself, you have actually not given up anything at all. Unless you give up yourself, you will—slowly perhaps, but surely—gather to yourself once again those very things which you gave up in the first place.

Abraham set off on his journey with the hope of reaching the promised land. Moses set off with the hope of rescuing the People of God from their slavery. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven with the hope of saving all mankind.

What difference does it make if you leave home for some distant place, perhaps even thousands of miles away, if you continue to bring along all your bad habits, your sinful self?

Saints are “fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Corinthians 4:10). Thus, the making of saints is beyond the scope of the wisdom of the world.

If you wish to set off on this road, you must go regardless of what other people may say to ridicule you. The Three Magi set off hoping to find the newborn Savior, and they found him. St. Francis Xavier set off hoping to save souls, and he found them. St. Maria Goretti set off to resist temptation, hoping thus to meet her Lord, and she met him.

You must lose in order to gain, die in order to live, abandon all else in order to meet the Lord. The Magi risked dangers and ridicule; St. Francis Xavier left his parents and country, forsaking worldly possessions and pleasure forever; St. Maria Goretti gave up her life.

Keep going forward on the Road of Hope, regardless of the often heartrending pleas of those you love. St. Paul knew that “imprisonment and afflictions await me” (Acts 20:23) and Jesus himself foresaw that the road to Jerusalem would lead to his great Passion (see Matthew 16:21). Yet both continued onwards.

Rich or poor, praised or ridiculed, noble or lowly—your station in life does not matter at all if you have decided to advance along this road, waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Our Lord declared, “I am the truth” (John 14:6). He did not say that newspapers are the truth, radio is the truth, or television is the truth. Which truth will you follow?

Keep moving forward relentlessly. Do not give up. Nobody will follow the person who turns back.

Do not give in to sensuality, do not give in to laziness, do not give in to selfishness. You cannot call black white, bad good, or dishonesty truth.

Are you a person who says “yes” to everything? Do you perhaps say “yes” to many gods, many religions, and a variety of moral “standards”? Do you have a flexible conscience which can accommodate itself to any situation and say “yes” to its values? Which road will you take?

You should be prepared to reject wealth and position—to give your very life if necessary—to preserve your ideals, your honor, and, most importantly, your faith. Never behave otherwise: To do so would be to lose everything.

About The Road of Hope (Hardcover)

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan is one of the most inspiring voices of the twentieth century, a true modern-day hero. During a time of political unrest in Vietnam, he was arrested for his faith and spent the next thirteen years in prison, enduring harsh treatment and deplorable conditions. He spent nine of those thirteen years in solitary confinement.

During those long years of isolation and imprisonment, instead of giving in to despair and self-pity, Van Thuan learned his greatest lesson. He found God in the darkness; he was never alone, never without comfort. He discovered that his life still had purpose, even in the midst of incredible suffering. He began using scraps of paper to compose messages of hope and courage for his fellow believers, which were smuggled out and eventually published. These short messages of encouragement—1,001 in total—were instantly popular with the Vietnamese people, many of whom also knew what it was like to suffer for their faith.

And now, from the damp darkness of a prison cell thousands of miles away, these messages of hope have passed through barbed wire, traveled across oceans, and been handed down over many years to speak to your heart today to offer you hope and light for your path.